Cousins visit for the day!!

There's nothing like visiting with family....esp when you live so far away from them!! And I'll just say to get used to seeing posts about family visiting us, because we will have family coming off and on from April thru July...and we're totally excited about it!!!
My beautiful cousin, Xan and her kids came to hang out with us one day this past week while her husband was at a Spring Training game about a mile away from our house. I'm thinking it's been at least 8-10 YEARS (!!) since we've seen each other, so it was really a gift to get to spend time with her and catch up!!!
Marissa and Ayden are both just way too cute!!!
Ayden was SUPER excited that we went and got the "big boys" out of school a little early! He followed Brant around and LOVED that Brant sat and played X BOX with him!
Jacob fell in love with little London! He's asked me about her since they left. He loves to get down on the floor and play with toddlers...and they love him bc he always knows how to make them laugh!
Marissa loved having cousins around for the day! She was so esp excited to hear about London (a "baby") but I think her hopes and dreams were a little bit crushed when she realized that London wasn't young enough for her to "mother", lol:)

Paintball War Wounds

Marty & Peter took Brant & Tyler paintballin' several weeks ago. Marty and Brant had a great time!! You could see it on their clothes, skin and in their hair, lol! Their hair and clothes were splashed with beautiful splashes of paint...while their skin was spotted with bruises!! Nothing like a gun, a zillion paintballs & an outdoor obstacle coarse to bond father & son!!!

Preschoolers, Shoes & Water

I'll start this post by repeating what I put on Facebook as my status this morning:

Looking out ur back window seeing a zillion pairs of shoes floating in ur pool is never a good thing.......

One friend commented wondering how long it took the kids to figure that fun, new game out, while another friend already has it in the works to pull this as a prank on someone!!!

I'm totally laughing about this now, but, as Jenn can attest:) I was not very happy when I looked out and saw probably 20 shoes floating in the pool, with their matches laid out on the cool deck (they were thrown over the pool fence, but didn't quite make it to the shores). I sent the children in, using my stern mommy voice:) and put them in time out. I had already given them a warning about throwing rocks in the pool. They did stop that. I think it must have been 10-15 mins before they saw the basket of shoes on the back porch and figured their new game was with shoes, not rocks, so it surely must be ok.

After ridding the pool of all our shoes, I knew that action had to be taken, lol! I had warned them that if they did it again (which was the second warning) that they would have to sit in time out. SSOOO I sat them in time out by their age...Brock, 2 mins...he gladly sat in TO-smiling the whole time while repeating "Shoes, Pool!! I FROW dim in the pool! Dats FUNNY!". Sarah got 3 mins and Garrett 4. Marissa got sent to her room for eternity!
This was taken just a little while ago, after the steam stopped coming out of my head :) I left them all out on the cool deck to dry off, so when Marissa and I went out to clean up from their little game, I got to really laughing about it all and decided to take photos for the 'ol blog. Marissa probably wouldn't have been smiling like this if I had stopped to take a picture right in the heat of the moment, it probably would have been more of a look of fear ...or terror.
It's funny how a little time passes and you start realizing other things that were going on during such an event as this. Earlier in the morning, the kids starting playing house. I remember hearing Garrett say, "WEll, Dad's are stronger than mom's and I'm the dad, so I can throw way farther than any of you..." ...he was saying that as he took his turn throwing a shoe in the water:) I just didn't realize what he was talking about until after the fact, lol!

It's the next day and I'm finally finishing this post. Marissa woke up so excited that her, new, "shiny shoes" were dry...and that I will let her wear them again! After fishing one of them out of the pool, I let her wear them just for the sake of the photo up above, but after the photo shoot, I took them and put them in Time Out. I told her that since she threw them in and didn't take care of them (esp bc I just bought them) that she couldn't wear them at all yesterday. She was horribly upset when she learned that that meant she couldn't sleep in them either!! The end.

Freeze your Tush off!!

So on Christmas Day, we packed up our car and headed over the mountains and thru the snow...to Utah to visit Grandma! We all got so excited when we got to Beaver, Ut and saw SNOW!! We stopped for gas and ran to play in it!!! I'm sure it was totally obvious that we are from bright, sunny, Arizona bc when we got out of the car, the boys had shorts and t-shirts on...and I think once their feet touched the snow, they put their flip flops back on, LOL!! I did dig out their jackets and sweatshirts shortly thereafter:)
Jacob had ONE mission, once we got to Grandma's house....Find the BIGGEST Icicle possible! He kept quite busy with this venture and really enjoyed being in the snow. Unfortunately, there were a couple "Debbie Downer" moments bc I had to tell him to stop....I thought it was cool to see some of the icicles he came back with, however, it wasn't until about the 4th on that I started to realize that most of them are hanging off the tops of houses...and he's not that tall...so how exactly is he getting these down?? After a little investigative work and some instinctive tracking skills, I realized that he was "borrowing" Grandma's flag pole to "tap" them off of all the neighbors houses! I must say, however, after some observation, I realized that he really knew what he was doing and was quite skilled at it as well! He was very careful not to actually hit the house, but rather, to tap it at just the precise point so that the Icicle would make a perfect break! (I did advise him to hunt on Grandma's turf after that though:)

I didn't feel like it at the time, but looking at this picture, it makes me feel like I was a mysterious Arabian woman! ...in the snow...it doesn't snow in Arabia does it? AW....

This is the first time Marty has worn this huge, super puffy Braves jacket in many many years! Keeping it in storage all these years was well worth it!!

Mysterious Arabian Woman and her....mysterious man!!

We first made "Mommy & Daddy Snowmen" and it was killing Marissa that there wasn't a baby, so we bundled back up and went and made a "baby Marissa Snowman". I spent time cutting down all of mom's flower bed (that was all frozen, lol:) so we just used some of those stems for arms. Broccoli for the eyes, twigs for mouth & and originally Marissa and Jacob insisted on using bananas for the noses, but they were way too heavy and just fell off, so I think they substituted it with rocks.

...that Arizona boy still in shorts!! Marty and I ran off for some shopping together and when we got home, the kids were out playing and here's what they were wearing:) ...Marissa is sporting her beautiful Princess dress that she just insisted on taking so she could show Grandma! -Put ice skates on her and she'd be just perfect!

Marissa, in her blue Princess dress no doubt, holding our nieces new beautiful baby.

Grandma fell several weeks ago, so that's what the bruise is from. She was healing pretty fast from it, we could tell improvement even by the end of the week.

WE LOVE you Grandma!!!!!!!!

~~Peppermint Twist~~

This was Marissa's first year of dance, so hence, her first dance recital!!! We were all so super excited to watch her on the 'big stage'!!!

Happy 11th Birthday to my Jacob!!!

Jacob wanted a Lego Party for his birthday!!!

He helped me with the cake by making the topper with Lego's. He did an awesome job on it!!
Red, green, blue & yellow were the colors we went with for decorations!
I gave the boys each a set of four lego wheels and then let them go to town creating their own Lego car!!! They had a blast and it was hard to get them to stop so we could race them!
Here's our 'make-shift' race track!
Ethan wanted a piece of that pinata ...and he got it!!
It was fun to get the expression on Jacob's face when he opened his gift from us, Dragonoid Collosus (if that's even how you spell it:)!! He was very excited about all of the gifts he got from all of his friends!! In past years, he's never wanted a party, so it was pretty fun that he was wanting to have his closest friends with him to celebrate!!
He is really blessed with some great friends!
Happy 11th Birthday Jacob!!!!! We love you!! You are such a fun kid and a blessing in our family!!!

Gratitude

Today I'm home, while Marty and the kids are at church. I feel like I'm getting a sinus infection and not feeling well. For the most part, our family blogs purpose is mostly to scrapbook events...pictures...so I usually don't get too personal. ( I have a separate, private blog, that I put more spiritual experiences on for my personal record.)...But I sat and read scriptures for a while this morning and then watched one of my favorite video's, Finding Faith in Christ and my heart is so full that I just want to record some of my testimony of Christ, here on this blog.
I am so grateful for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! I know that Christ lives! I know that he atoned for all of our sins and that because of his sacrifices, we are able to repent. I want to return to live with my Heavenly Father again someday....to live in his presence, and it is only by repentance and faith in the Lord, that we will be able to do that.
It's so important to teach my children the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To teach them about our Heavenly Father's plan. To teach them the purpose of life, here on earth. To teach them about love and serving others. I want my sons to know and understand the importance and truths of the Priesthood and for my daughter to know the importance of being a virtuous daughter of God. I feel very blessed to have been born to such a strong, wonderful family with parents who trusted in the Lord and taught us gospel principles. There have been several times, recently, that I have come across individuals who don't believe in Christ and who have put down Christians for our beliefs...and Mormons, in particular. To those individuals I will just say that we, as Mormons, do live stricter lifestyles than most, however, the guidelines are there for reason. Living the gospel and keeping the standards of the church is what has brought me true joy and happiness! I'm grateful for the courage that the Lord has blessed me with, throughout my life, to make good choices. Don't get me wrong...I've made my share of mistakes, but so many times in my life, I've had to stand out from the crowd and make a choice bc I believe in it, rather than make choices just because "everyone else is doing it".
I am so very blessed to have been sealed in the Temple to such a wonderful man who loves me, supports me and treats me with respect. He honors the Priesthood and is an amazing father! I love our children so very much and I know that the Lord knew what he was doing when he sent them to us and that we are on earth together as a family for a reason!!
I am so grateful for our Prophet, Pres Monson! I know, without doubt, that he is called of God and that he speaks with God daily through prayer and personal revelation! The same prayer and personal revelation that each of us is empowered to have, if we just have faith. I believe in Miracles and have witnessed many miracles in our little family and extended families! Prayer is a powerful, powerful thing!
Although it's not fun to be sick and feel crummy, I am grateful for this time that I've had to sit in the quiet of our home and reflect and study and ponder and to feel the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I'm grateful for the peace and comfort that it has brought me.
I hope and pray that all of us have a great Thanksgiving Holiday and that we can all remember to take time with our families to reflect on the things that we are grateful for and ways that the Lord has blessed our lives.

San Digo, Part 1

Mormon Battalion History Center

Our niece, Melissa...aka. "Sis. Virgin" (for those of you who do not know her, yes, Virgin is her last name...I'm not trying to tease her, lol:) ...is currently serving her mission in San Diego. She and her companion split their time between serving here, at the MBHC and the San Diego Temple. We were so excited to get to see her!! ...and seriously, she's natural! She took us on a tour and she was confident and we could tell that she has gained such a strong testimony and love of the Lord as well as the many people she is serving!


Marissa was yelling down to the street like she was having a conversation with someone. The funny thing is that, she was!! Some awesome college girl stood on the sidewalk, waiting to get in the car with her good looking boyfriend, bc she didn't want to break the conversation she and Marissa were having!! All I heard was Marissa yelling, "I like your boots!!! I got my pink princess purse!!!"
Uncle Marty and Sis. Virgin:)
That's not a gold tooth...that's pure GOLD there! We all had fun looking for gold.....
...I would seriously love having a little something like this in my backyard! It's kinda theraputic~~maybe I'll build one for my next 'big project'!
All of those pictures on the wall...talk...and move and look around at each other. We were all quite impressed!
Marissa wanted to be by Melissa's side everywhere we went. It was pretty stinkin cute!
Brant is officially TALLER than Melissa now!!
Jacob wanted to be around her too! He talked about his "cousin Melissa who is serving her mission", several times since our trip.
We're so thankful that our kids have such amazing cousins who are setting such good examples for them!! Thanks Melissa, we are so proud of you and love you tons!!

Outdoor Mall and Candy Shoppe
We're on vacation...we got some candy. It was fun:)

Jacob Loves loves to smell flowers! He has always had a very strong sense of smell (seriously...if you forget to put deoderant on, He'll let you know!:)...aw, since he could walk, he would pull any flowers he could get his hands on and smell them and rip them apart, piece by piece. He really wanted a CLOSE UP of him smelling these flowers. I figure it's "scrapbook worthy", so here's your debut Jake!
I love my Brant too, that's for sure!!!


Belmont...Amusement Park on the Beach!






Look at that studdly man running to me! He and Brant went to the Amusement Park to play video games and ride some rides while J, M & I played on the beach.
They won a few 'toys' so brought them on shore to throw around.




Marty and I goofing off while the kids played in the water.